Employability Skills Report: Travelodge Case Study

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Develop a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives.......................................4
1.2 Evaluate own effectiveness against defined objectives.........................................................5
1.3 Make recommendations for improvement.............................................................................6
1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve quality of performance........7
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Develop solution to work based problems...........................................................................10
2.2 Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels...................11
2.3 Identify effective time-management strategies in relation to the work-based experience or
in your role as a manager at Travelodge....................................................................................13
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................15
3.1 Explain the roles people play in a team and how they can work together to achieve shared
goals...........................................................................................................................................15
3.2 Analyse team dynamics.......................................................................................................16
3.3 Suggest alternative ways to complete tasks and achieve team goals...................................17
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................18
4.1 Evaluate tools and methods for developing solutions to problems with reference to your
chosen organisation or Travelodge Hotel..................................................................................18
4.2 Develop an appropriate strategy for resolving a particular problem of labour turnover with
reference to tour chosen organisation or Travelodge hotel.......................................................19
4.3 Evaluate the potential impact on the business of implementing the strategy. You should
consider both financial and non-financial impacts on the business...........................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22

Introduction
The skills and knowledge of the employees who are working in the company matter a lot for the
organisation as with the help of these skills and knowledge, the organisation is able gain the
competitive advantage over the competitors through offering the competent products and
services to the company. Here, the current report is based on such skills of the employees that the
company needs so that their image into the market could be enhanced. Here, the company
Travelodge has been taken as an example. With the help of this, the different sets of the skills of
employees such as time management strategies, problem solving strategy, performance objective
etc. would be discussed. Along with this, the different problems that organisation faces also
would be discussed along with the strategies that could help the company in overcome the
situations and problems.

Task 1
1.1 Develop a set of own responsibilities and performance objectives
In order to gain the objectives and goals, the organisation assigns some responsibilities to the
employees and wants them to perform these with full dedication. Here. It is very important for
the employees to perform the duties and responsibilities for the personal and professional
development. For the organisation, it is also very important to define the responsibilities clearly
so that each and every employee would be able to know what to perform and were to perform.
While assigning the responsibilities, Travelodge always makes sure that the objectives of the
responsibilities and duties are clearly defined to the employees and besides this, Travelodge also
work on the concept of self management where it provides the opportunity to the employees to
manage their responsibilities their own according to role (Rosenberg, Heimler and Morote,
2012). In Travelodge, catering manager plays a very important role and the responsibilities and
performance objectives of catering manager in Travelodge are described below:
Responsibilities of “Catering manager” in Travelodge:
The main responsibilities of catering manager in Travelodge are:
- Have the conversation with chefs and design the menu accordingly.
- Keep watch on the health and safety act of country to identify new rules and regulations
and make the changes in the policies of Travelodge accordingly.
- Manage the food and other items of Travelodge and also for events which are going o be
held in Travelodge.
- Provide the training and development programs to the staffs of catering department.
- Provide proper monitoring to the services provided by staffs to customers
- Contact with customers and collect the feedback from the customers in order to enhance
the services.
Performance objective of “Catering manager” in Travelodge:

The performance objectives basically define the expectations of the company from the
employees. It is a set of the objectives that the employees of Travelodge need to achieve in order
to perform the responsibilities assigned to them. The performance objectives for the designation
of catering manager in Travelodge are explained below:
- Hiring the best candidate from the market through recruitment and selection
- Provide the training and development program to enhance the skills and knowledge of
staff.
- Conduct the motivational programs to enhance the motivational and satisfaction of
employees.
- Conducting the processes like performance appraisals etc on the basis of the performance
of employees.
1.2 Evaluate own effectiveness against defined objectives
In order to achieve the personal and professional goals and objectives, conducting the self
evaluation is very important. With the help of this, the employees are able to know their growth
in the company. Here, my self-evaluations process against the performance objective is given
below:
Quality assurance and maintenance
In the travel and tourism industry, the customers are perceived as a king and all the processes and
activities of the organisation revolve around the satisfaction of the customers (McQuaid and
Lindsay, 2015). So, as a catering manager, I always make sure that the staffs of Travelodge
provide the better and enhanced services every time when they meet customers. For that purpose,
I always monitored their services and also provide them training and development program if I
find something wrong. After all, I also ask for the feedback from the side of the customers to
know their perception towards the company and also towards the services provided by staffs of
Travelodge.
Application of knowledge at workplace
As a catering manager, I also go through the training and development program conducted by
Travelodge. Here, I always make sure that the knowledge gained by me in training and

development program is being applied by me so that the quality of the services could be
improved.
Application of safety regulations
As described earlier that the customers are king for the company and in this way, providing the
safety and security to the customers is the main responsibility of the organisation. As a catering
manager of Travelodge, I always make sure that the safety and food regulation are being
followed by me effectively so that a healthy and good environment and food could be provided
to the customers.
1.3 Make recommendations for improvement
Travelodge always provide the effective and good services to the customers and the customers
also love the services provided by the company. As the competition is increasing in the market,
here it is very important for Travelodge to identify the window of improvement so that the same
image of the company could be maintained in the travel industry. Here, some recommendations
for improvement are explained:
Co-workers engagement
The study shows that the team working is must for the company as with this the desired items
could be achieved easily (Tymon, 2013). Here, Travelodge needs to include the policies and
strategies so that the engagement of the employees could be achieved. For that purpose, rewards
system could be introduced where the rewards would be given to the employees on their
performance and also in helping the co workers.
Response Evaluation
Travelodge also needs to work on the response evaluation process where the feedback gathered
from the side of customers and clients must be processed and the strategies and policies are also
needs to be formulated so that the satisfaction level of the customers and clients could be
increased to next level.
Monitoring management

Through conducting the monitoring process, the organisation could identify the silly mistakes in
the operations and processes. Here, a proper monitoring of each and every process should be
done from the side of Travelodge so that the effective and filtered services could be provided by
the organisation to the customers. With the help of this, the chances of mistakes also could be
reduced from the organisation.
1.4 Review how motivational techniques can be used to improve quality of performance
The quality of the performance of the employees is directly linked to how well the employees of
the company are motivated and satisfied with the policies of the company. Here, the different
motivational techniques that could be used by Travelodge in improving the quality of
performance are described below:
Maslow’s hierarchy need theory
Maslow’s hierarchy need theory focuses on basic needs of the employees that could keep the
employees satisfied and motivated. This theory divides the needs of the employees in five parts
which are:
- Physiological need: This is basically the needs for food, clothes and shelter
- Safety and Security need: This is basically the needs for job security and safety of job and
family
- Love and belongingness: This is basically the needs of making friends at workplace,
- Self-esteem need: This is basically the need for self respect at workplace and society
- Self-actualisation need: This is basically the needs for fulfilling the wish and desire
(Fallows and Steven, 2015)
Here, Travelodge needs to start from physiological needs. Once these needs of the employee is
fulfilled then the company needs to move to another need i.e. safety and security need and so on.
The image given below explains the Maslow hierarchy need model effectively:

Image 1: Maslow Need theory (Mason, Williams and Cranmer, 2018)
McGregor theory X and theory Y
McGregor theory X and theory Y believes that in an organisation, the behaviour and attitudes of
employees could be categorised in:
- Theory X
- Theory Y
The characteristics of the employees who fall in these two mentioned categories are explained in
the diagram given below:

Image 2: McGregor two factor theory (Lowden, Elliot and Lewin, 2011)
According to McGregor theory X and theory Y, rather than focusing too much on theory X
employees, the company Travelodge must focus on theory Y employees as they are satisfied
with the company and a small effort of company made by company could make them motivated
and gaining the success could be much easier by the company.

Task 2
2.1 Develop solution to work based problems
The loyal customers and employees of the organisation could be considered as the real assets of
the company. For an organisation, taking the care of these two is very important especially in
achieving the goals and objectives of the company (Jackson, 2015). Two work based problems
could be developed in Travelodge which are:
Problem 1: Employee turnover
As competition is increasing then the competitors are offering good salary packages to skilled
employees. Here, retaining these employees is very important for Travelodge.
Problem 2: Change in the taste of customers:
As competition is increasing then the competitors are offering new products and services which
are making the change in the demand and taste of the customers.
These are two problems that Travelodge needs to solve immediately. Here the solutions for these
two problems are explained:
Solution 1: Introducing new policies for employees
In order to reduce the employee turnover from Travelodge, it is very important for the company
to bring the new policies to the organisation that could empower the employees and also could
provide them the feel of safety and security. The policies that could be introduced in Travelodge
are insurance cover, accidental cover, reward system etc.
Solution 2: Feedback gathering
In order to identify the taste of the customers, Travelodge could start the process of gathering the
feedback of the customers about the food delivered to them, the services delivered to them etc.
With the help of this, the company would be able to know the taste of the customers and could
keep them happy and committed to the organisation.

2.2 Communicate in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels.
The communication comes under the most important process of the organisation. In Travelodge,
the communication in the organisation could be performed through two ways:
Upward communication
Upward communication exists when the information of the organisation flowed from lower
management to top management. In Travelodge, as the organisation is facing the problem of
employee turnover and customer taste, then it is very important to making the top management
aware of that (Holmes, 2016). Here, an example of upward communication is given through the
formal letter to make the top management aware of employee turnover problem.
Formal letter
From,
ABC
Deputy Catering Manager
Travelodge, London
Date- 10/5/2019
To,
XYZ
Board of Directors
Travelodge, London
Subject: Increased employee turnover in Travelodge
Dear Sir,
The company Travelodge has come to long way through the participation of the
employees from each and every policy of the company. As known that the competition in the
market is increasing and the competitors of Travelodge are offering the lucrative packages to the

candidate along with huge amenities. Here, I want make a concern that the employees of
Travelodge are being distracted through these amenities given by competitors. In this way, last
year, huge numbers of the employees has left the company and have joined its competitors.
Here, I want to share my feeling that the employees of Travelodge are not happy with the
current policies of Travelodge. In order to make them satisfied and motivated, it is very
important for Travelodge to introduce some employee welfare policies such as insurance cover,
accidental cover etc. With the help of this, a full contribution could be gained from the side of
employees. Looking for a positive response from your side in this matter
Thank you & regards
ADC
Catering manager
Travelodge
Downward communication:
Downward communication exists when the information is flowed from top management to lower
management (Fallows and Steven, 2015). An example of downward communication is given
below:
Memo
To Catering Department
From Catering manager
Date May 5th, 2019
Subject: Employees welfare policies
On seeing the good performance and dedication of the employees of Travelodge, the top
management has decided to include some policies under the employee welfare programs. The
policies include insurance cover, accidental cover and incentive programs.